Tide Pods, Shoplifting and Saving Money

I love Tide laundry soap. I loved the Super Bowl last Sunday and my favorite ads were the Tide commercials. They were clever and fun. Tide probably has the best name recognition and perhaps like Coca Cola and Pepsi… the laundry challenge is all about those competitors who are thought to be inferior to Tide. They don’t want to be #2.

Even shoplifters enjoy Tide as much as I do- except they apparently use it to trade for drugs. The National Retail Federation in the past has called out Tide as one of the products most targeted for shoplifting.

Recently some teenagers are posting videos of themselves putting these pods into their mouths—in some cases biting into them—as part of an online dare called the “Tide Pod Challenge.” I can understand a small child being interested in the bright colors of the soap product but IT’S STILL SOAP ! It doesn’t taste good and it will burn through the lining of your stomach, burning your mouth as it dissolves. Dumb teenagers.

Poison control centers around the country have reported 39 cases of intentional laundry pod “exposures” among teens in the first two weeks of 2018. Clearly, this is a serious problem and this product should be kept out of the hands of children much like any other cleaning product.

Here is what one manufacturer has to say: “Ensuring the safety of the people who use our products is fundamental to everything we do at P&G,” Taylor said in a Jan. 22 blog post. “However, even the most stringent standards and protocols, labels and warnings can’t prevent intentional abuse fueled by poor judgment and the desire for popularity.”

Could it damage the Tide brand? Probably not anything long term, improvements in packaging will continue to be made and teenagers will still do crazy stunts that cause harm to themselves- And Mom’s will still want good laundry soap.

My Mom was always a name brand shopper and Tide was her go to detergent no matter what. Her favorites were Cascade dishwasher soap, Dawn liquid soap, Ivory bar soap, Biscuit, Crisco lard and Tide.

Whenever she would come to visit, she would fill my shelves with her favorite brands. It was great – I loved it. Not because somehow I believed those products were the best, but because they were expensive and I would rarely buy them for myself.

I have tried other more affordable laundry products but when I have guests coming to stay, I will buy the name brand products my Mom loved including my favorite Tide… so my guests won’t think I’m a dirty cheapo.

But the price is still painful for me – why would I spend $11.00 on a jug of Tide when I can spend $4.00 for the same size of —– some other brand? I will choose the other brand even if my clothes don’t appear cleaner, my whites are dingy and I’m not happy with the results. Sometime I even use dish soap in the washer because I’m too cheap and too busy to run to the store. I would rather spend my money on actual food.

I hoard coupons to ease the pain of name brand shopping but it often is not enough. So I loved reading Consumer Reports and their recent post on comparing Tide to Green Works.

“You might think you have to spend extra to get an “eco-friendly” laundry detergent. But you don’t. In our tests. Tide PurClean was a very good detergent, but Green Works out-cleaned it – and Green Works cost 68% less than TIDE. “

Wow – that sounds fantastic. So I had to give it a try. Who wouldn’t want to save 68% every time they do laundry but also that the product was actually good.

If I can save money on products, and still have good results… the money I save can go into my needed nest egg money for retirement needs. I estimate the savings could be easily be about $200 a year. That’s the equivalent to a months worth of gas for me.

Every penny saved adds up and can benefit your retirement needs.

Where can you save money but still be happy with the product performance?